Last year's ASB Classic runner-up Aravane Rezai of France had a fierce fight on centre court against two-time former champion Eleni Daniilidou of Greece in the first match of the 2009 championship. The opening fixture was punctuated by many scorching winners to match the weather.
The tall Greek right-hander was favouring one leg and short of a gallop, but her big wingspan and ability to hit screamers from nowhere kept the smaller Frenchwoman hustling along the baseline and sweating on every point. Daniilidou and she kept herself in the hunt by exploiting Rezai's relative weakness at net, forcing errors on overheads and volleys. When the heat went on at the end of the final set, however, the wild card could not match Rezai's energy and went down 3-6 6-3 3-6.
I tried to move her a little bit," Rezai said.
"I tried also to come into the net and to finish points. It's my new game for 2009 because I've always played at the back of the court."
The temperature on centre court only increased for the following match and the tennis kept pace in a great tussle between Czech 6th seed Nicole Vaidisova and Russian Alla Kudryavtseva. Heavy groundstrokes flowed from either end at a furious rate in the first two sets, with the Czech taking the opener but the Russian retaliating in the second.
A high error rate was forgivable with the amount of topspin being exchanged (in most cases the lines were only just missed). The Czech's nerve held in the end and she took the match 7-6(3) 4-6 7-5, but the Russian left the court warmly applauded by the large crowd for her courage.
"You have to admire the way Alla played," Vaidisova said immediately afterwards, echoing the sentiment from the grandstand, "she was really tough. Games like that go back and forth, they can turn on a single shot here and there... one or two rallies went my way and that was the match."
Third seed Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain played Mara Santangelo of Italy in Monday's final match, with the Spaniard winning easily in the end after a closely-fought first set, 7-5 6-0.
Fourth seed Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada and Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia fought out one of the day's best matches on Court 4.
Wozniak's rhythm was good at the outset, her serve was almost faultless and her trademark power increased as the first set wore on. Rybarikova fought gamely in the second though, breaking late to keep the match alive and then acing her way to take the set in a tiebreak. The effort took its toll, and Wozniak prevailed in the decidier 6-3 6-7(4) 7-5... a high quality tussle to reward the knowledgable outside-court patrons.
After a tense first set which needed a tiebreak to separate the two, fifth seed Shahar Peer of Israel accounted for Petra Cetkovska of the Czech Republic easily in the second and won 7-6(4) 6-2. Peer was striking the ball well by match's end and moving fluidly after a scratchy beginning.
In other matches Monday, Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic beat Virginie Razzano of France 1-6 6-2 6-3, Edina Gallovits of Romania beat another Czech, Klara Zakopalova, 3-6 6-2 7-5, and 34-year-old American Jill Craybas beat 38-year-old Japanese wild card Kimiko Date Krumm 6-4 6-3 in an intriguing battle between two wily veterans. The high standard of tennis is guaranteed to continue Tuesday.
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